Bass Coast Health celebrates nurses

BASS Coast Health (BCH) hosted a special afternoon tea event on International Nurses Day recently to celebrate its exceptional nurses.
BCH thanked them for the role they play in providing safe and quality nursing care.
Executive director of acute care/chief nursing and midwifery officer Lou Sparkes said BCH’s 290 nurses work across 16 different departments within the health service. These areas include from the emergency department and operating suite, to varied nursing roles within sub-acute and community settings.
“Our services and programs are growing quickly and provide a variety of settings for nursing staff and we will be able to further support this with a new High Dependency Unit that will commence in June,” Ms Sparkes said.
BCH nurses conduct about 50 home visits per day, from Grantville to Cowes and Venus Bay.
“We have a fantastic new Hospital in the Home program that has been a huge success and we’re about to commence a dedicated day infusion service that will deliver chemotherapy as part of our new cancer service”, she said.
“Our nurses work in different roles at all levels of the health service, from novice graduate nurses through to the executive team.”
BCH has also recently increased the number of nursing graduates it takes and started a transition year for nurses completing their graduate year to provide support for an extra year. BCH has relationships with universities that enable BCH to now provide expanded undergraduate placements for nursing students.
“We offer a variety of placements at BCH for students during their degree and this assists these students in transitioning into their graduate year,” Ms Sparkes said.
With Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ recent visit to BCH’s Wonthaggi Hospital to announce $115 million in next year’s budget to increase the health service’s capacity as part of stage one of the hospital’s expansion, opportunities for skilled nursing staff are expanding.
The new facilities will provide nursing staff with a contemporary setting to work in and support the health service’s capacity and capability, which in turn will provide more opportunities for skilled nursing staff to grow and diversify, working in new services as they are offered.
“We have a fairly young and dynamic nursing profile at BCH and because of our size, we have the ability to offer quite a range of opportunities for nurses,” Ms Sparkes said.
“We are truly so lucky to have such a wonderful team of dedicated nurses and midwives”, Ms Sparkes said, “We’re always looking for more nurses who want to work flexibly or try a new area to join our nursing workforce, and permanent and casual opportunities are available for those interested in joining our team”.
If you would like to learn more, please contact Leanne Tessari, Executive Assistant on 5671 3108 for more information.

Recognition warranted: Bass Coast Health acknowledged its nurses on International Nurses Day.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on May 29 2018. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry